Mercymorn the First, Saint of Joy is the Second Saint to Serve the King Undying.
Biography[]
Pre-Resurrection[]
Prior to the Resurrection, the scientist John Gaius worked with a crew of enigmatically named friends. Given that their initials align with the names of those who later became his Saints, and the similarly gendered pronoun, it appears likely that Mercymorn was the one referred to in his recounted story as “M—“.
M—, along with A— (likely the later Saint Augustine) and G— (likely Saint Gideon) was one of Gaius’s earliest partners in the cryosleep project. Her specialty was medicine.
When the project turned toward supernaturally animatIng the dead, M— reacted with revulsion. She was described as “throwing up” or “dry-retching” on multiple occasions.
Like the later lives of Mercymorn and Augustine, she frequently quarreled with the partner known as A—. When she and A— presented a united front on a matter, Gaius described it as “scary as fuck.”
M— died in the shootout leading to the Resurrection, attempting to barter for Gaius’s life.
After the Resurrection[]
Mercymorn and her cavalier Cristabel Oct were among the first disciples to serve the Emperor at Canaan House following The Resurrection. The circumstances of their invitation to join the Emperor are lost to history. Together, they founded the Eighth House, known as the Keepers of the Tome and the Forgiving House.
Harrow the Ninth[]
Ten Months Before the Emperor's Murder[1][]
Mercymorn stumbles upon Gideon's first attempt to murder Harrowhark and is distraught, not because he is attempting to murder Harrow, but rather that he has put in her the position of having to stop him in order to not lose favor with John. She heals Harrow and argues with Gideon about his methods, but he insists that he has a right to kill Harrow. Mercy makes veiled references to his interference with the Dios Apate Major plot, but does not respond. He requests Harrow's sword, but Mercy and Harrow both refuse him. She intervenes in a number of his other attempts on Harrow's life, ostensibly for the same reasons.
Nine Months Before the Emperor's Murder[]
On the day that the Emperor shows Harrowhark the people he will send to resurrect Ninth House, Mercymorn is attempting to contact him over the comms. John instructs his people to put her off, going so far as to fake a bad connection.
Following the attack on three Cohort ships, Mercy travels to the Erebos in order to collect John and bring him back to Mithraeum. Pinching a high cervical nerve, she paralyzes a sleeping Harrow and takes to the shuttle bay in a wheelchair. She bullies her way past the various Cohort leadership that attempts to stop her, incapacitating the most persistent with her necromancy. Mercy stops to look at Harrow and is displeased when she unbinds her paralysis. She allows Harrow to walk the rest of the way to the shuttle bay, and into the transport shuttle she has acquired for their journey. Mercy argues with John and Admiral Sarpedon, cleverly forcing John's hand and getting him into the ship.
Aboard, he starts to chastise her before noticing Ianthe and Harrow listening in. Non-verbally, she argues with him, claiming that he cannot afford to stay dangerously close to the Dominican System and Blood of Eden with so few Lyctors remaining and the Seventh Resurrection Beast closing in on the Mithraeum. In the end, John concedes. Mercy sits to pilot the ship, and she and John begin to lecture the young Lyctors on River travel. Complaining about his choice analogies and making several unhelpful comments, she eventually settles into her role. As they submerge, John abruptly demands obedience and she faithfully keeps time and pace in the River. The longer they remain in the River, Mercy begins to strain against the fear of remembering Cassiopeia's death. Finally, John tells her to accelerate as Harrow's focus slips and they speed out of the River.
On the Mithraeum, Mercymorn attends the funeral of Cytherea the First. They share stories of Cytherea's life, Augustine and Mercymorn barely containing their squabbling under the guise of arguing over details. They talk about when they'd last seen her and if there was any sign of her plot, as well as of her cavalier, who they did not like. Mercymorn notices Harrow and Ianthe are awake, and John brings them to Cytherea's casket. Augustine introduces himself and asks several funeral-inappropriate questions of the girls. Gideon the First returns from his unnamed mission, and announces that the Seventh Resurrection Beast is within 10 months of Mithraeum. He asks if they are going to stay and fight or run, to which John chooses to stay.
Six Months Before the Emperor's Murder[]
Mercymorn is entrusted with Harrowhark's Lyctor training and begins having her kill planets in preparation for their battle with the Seventh Resurrection Beast. She is harsh, pushing Harrow hard and giving scathing critique. She views Harrow's training as pointless as Harrow's incomplete Lyctorhood means that anytime she enters the River, her body is entirely undefended. Under her tutelage, Harrow kills thirteen planets in the path of the Beast, preventing it from gaining their energy.
Aboard Mithraeum, Mercy is unhappy and argumentative. As part of her research into her new siblings, Harrow overhears an argument between Mercy and Augustine that she does not understand. Augustine threatens her, claiming she is playing a "dangerous game"[2] and that he will kill her if John learns of some secret (likely Dios Apate Major). Augustine also commands her to stop touching Cytherea's body, a claim she does not understand. After this argument, the two avoid each other whenever possible. Harrow also asks Mercy about her early life directly, but she refuses and grows combative when Harrow mentions Cristabel Oct.
Four Months Before the Emperor's Murder[]
As the Resurrection Beast draws nearer, Harrow and Ianthe are left to each others company as the "adults" delve into complex planning. The elder Lyctors attempt to explain the Heralds of the Beast to their new siblings, but struggle to make sense. Mercymorn's training with Harrowhark falls to the side as the elder Lyctors begin to accept the inevitability of her death in battle.
John asks Harrow to make dinner for everyone, and she obliges. At dinner, John serves her mediocre attempt at soup and Mercymorn bemoans having to participate in family dinner. As they discuss her soup, Harrow explodes Gideon with her own marrow she has cooked into the soup. John freezes everyone with his necromancy and chides Harrow. She pleas that he protect her from Gideon's attacks, but he only asks her when she last slept. At her response, he heals Gideon and sends everyone out of the room—instructing Ianthe to put Harrow to bed. Only Mercy is asked to stay, where she is fiercely chided for negligence in mentor that has let her miss Harrow's impossible skill.
Mercymorn begins to pay more attention to Harrow's abilities. She quizzes her on the construction of Ianthe's new bone arm and number of other inconsequential facts before asking for the name of the Saint of Duty. Harrow responds with "Ortus the First" and Mercymorn touches her head and rifles around her brain with necromancy. She seems perplexed by what she finds and states that she "can't tell if [Harrow is] a once-in-a-lifetime genius, an insane imbecile, or both."[3]
The next day, Mercymorn receives a formal dinner invitation from Augustine that likely contains a note threatening her with a piece of blackmail. She comes to his rooms, furious, and finds Harrowhark and Ianthe already there. Augustine swears by his sword that if she commits to his plan, whatever information he has on her will never come to life. Mercymorn agrees, and then instantly regrets it when he unveils his plan is Dios apate, minor—or that they will be seducing John. She punches Augustine in the face, breaking several teeth, but he holds her to her promise.
Augustine lays out a fantastic feast—candles, white linen, silver cutlery, and a many-coursed decadent meal. They feast and drink for two hours, all becoming quite drunk. Augustine and Mercymorn begin toasting to lost friends which leads to an argument over their cavaliers, Cristabel and Alfred. Augustine turns to the toast to Pyrrha, Gideon's cavalier, which angers him. Ianthe redirects the toast to enemies and Augustine toasts to Commander Wake, and succeeds in getting Gideon to storm out of the dinner. Augustine attempts to toast to sisters and women left behind, but John balks. He apologizes, and Mercymorn redirects to the toast to John. They drink more and John, Augustine, and Mercymorn descend into more sentimental and playful conversations about people they knew. As Mercy finishes her glass, John removes all the alcohol from around her. Despite his protests, they continue their conversation about Cristabel and Alfred. Augustine promises he doesn't hate Cristabel and "barely" hates Mercymorn. She kisses him, and when John tries to interrupt, Augustine pulls him into a kiss too—completing their seduction and distraction.
They are distracted by the incinerator alarm, and all three rush to see what is the matter. There, they find Harrow covered in bone construct and hovering over Gideon, who has been stabbed through the chest and dragged from the incinerator. Harrow relays her story of the animated corpse of Cytherea in the incinerator control room, but is met with weary disbelief. They search the Mithraeum, but Cytherea's body is nowhere to be found and completely undetectable. After the search, Mercy is walking with Augustine who is disgruntled about the mess of an evening. He harps on Mercy's performance, but she snaps back furious with his use of Cristabel. Augustine asks her where she's stashed Cytherea, and Mercymorn denies having touched her.
Two Months Before the Emperor's Murder[]
Mercymorn and Harrow draw the short straw and are sent to kill a planet in the path of the Seventh Resurrection Beast. Seeming irritable, Mercymorn leaves Harrow to her own devices and goes to take care of a nearby moon on her own with the promise to return in six hours.
One Week Before the Emperor's Murder[]
Mercymorn is the first to spot the Resurrection Beast when it arrive in range. Partially succumbing to the Heralds psychological effects, she raises the alarm and closes shutters over the windows. The Lyctors get on the comms and she manages to relay the appropriate information. Augustine curses her for being stupid enough to look at the Beast directly and sends everyone back to bed.
As the battle draws nearer, the residents of the Mithraeum meet to discuss battle strategy. Mercymorn outlines the plan of attack—tiring the Beast out in the upper levels of the River, and then dragging it down and into the stoma when it tries to flee—and counters Augustine, Gideon, and Ianthe's arguments and suggestions with failures from previous battles. In the end, Mercy's strategy wins and each Lyctor is assigned a direction of the Beast to each Lyctor (save Harrow and John). Mercy assigns herself the southernmost point.
The Night Before the Emperor's Murder[]
Mercymorn is on Mithraeum waiting to do battle with the seventh Resurrection Beast. The Heralds begin their attack on the Mithraeum in the East quadrant, and Harrow and Ianthe are hit with the worst waves of psychological attack from them. The Heralds continue their attack on Mithraeum for almost an hour as the Lyctors wait out the waves of fear in darkness. The Emperor gives instructions over the comm, and the Lyctors prepare to descend into the River.
Mercymorn goes to where Harrow's body lay defenseless as she is in the River, numbs her body, and stabs her through the abdomen with her own rapier. She then drags Harrow out into the corridor where the Heralds will see her and finish the job. Returning to the fight at hand, Mercymorn is screaming and battling a Herald when Harrow's body comes up behind her. She turns and, seeing Gideon Nav's golden eyes, mistakes her for Alecto. She prepares for an attack, but it never comes and Mercymorn realizes her mistake—She understands that it is Gideon Nav in Harrow's body, and that the eye color is due to Commander Wake and the Ninth House operation. It takes her a few moment more to understand why her eyes are golden—that these are the Emperor's natural eyes, and that he lied about the nature of Lyctorhood.
She decides to clean up her mess and kill Gideon, but she assumes that Harrow's body is still unable to heal. They fight, but Mercymorn brings her to the ground easily. Before she can finish her, Mercymorn's chest is blown apart by an ancient gun. She lays twitching and healing on the ground as Cytherea leaves, followed by Gideon. At some point, she is found by Augustine who has already seen Gideon in Harrow's body.
Thirty Minutes Before the Emperor's Murder[]
Mercymorn and Augustine both appeal to the Emperor to come clean, saying "It's over, John. It's all come out ... it took ten thousand years, but it's all come out."[4] The Emperor asks if he is in trouble, and then directs their attention to Cytherea's body and introduces his Lyctors to Commander Wake. Mercymorn and Augustine draw their rapiers and the Emperor, puzzled that they have met, asks for clarification. Wake claims that Mercymorn and Augustine were working for her, which the Lyctors deny. Augustine and Mercymorn argue with Wake, claiming she wasted time when she knew that Gideon the First was tracking.
The Emperor silences them with a burst of necromancy. He again asks what Wake was doing on Ninth House and she explains that she was going to break into the Locked Tomb. Wake explains that she came armed with a baby that she had birthed herself, much to Augustine's horror, after Mercymorn's dummies and ova had died. The Emperor is explain exactly how the plan would not have succeeded when Gideon the First walks into the Emperor's rooms. Gideon the First walks up to Wake and shoots her in the head. The Emperor protests, but her ghost is already gone. At Augustine's question, he shares that the Number Seven has fled.
The Emperor sits, and asks Gideon if he was aware that Wake was pregnant. He confirms he was and explains, to the horror of everyone, that he thought that it was his child. The Emperor insists that the plan would still not work, and Augustine and Mercymorn fill him in on Dios apate, major—their plan to steal his genetic material and create a child capable of opening the Locked Tomb. The Emperor asks if Wake and baby died on entry, and Gideon walks into the room and announces herself.
With Gideon in the flesh, the Emperor understands why his Lyctors are so upset. They argue over Alecto and how monstrous she was, and Mercymorn presses for the truth of what happened to her and how she was killed. The Emperor admits that he did not kill her, just "switched her off."[5] Mercymorn and Augustine explain that what united them years ago was the realization that The Emperor had not killed Alecto, and what Gideon has caused them to realize that is that she was his cavalier and perfect Lyctorhood was possible. Ianthe decides to join them in the room, but says nothing.
As Mercymorn presses for any sign of regret for having killed all of their cavaliers, Augustine asks about Anastasia's failed attempt at Lyctorhood. The Emperor admits that she had nearly cracked it, but claims she had still made a mistake. Augustine asks the Emperor to put an end to his mission, but he refuses. Mercymorn promises that she will forgive him if he will do one thing: look her in the eyes and tell her he loved Cristabel, her cavalier. As he does so, she reaches inside of him and rends him into dust with her necromancy.
Mercymorn and Augustine explain that with the Emperor dead the Nine Houses will be dead and gone within three hours with no hope to save their inhabitants. Mercymorn expresses the desire to commit suicide, but Augustine refuses her saying that they have to go after the remaining Resurrection Beasts, sue for peace with Blood of Eden, and find a place for the remaining inhabitants of the Empire. Augustine asks Gideon the First if he will make any move against them, but Gideon the First does not have time to fully respond before the Emperor reforms and murders Mercymorn.
As Yet Unsent[]
“I really ought to have an ulcer by now…Maybe I should give myself one.”[6]
Having promised Blood of Eden twenty years prior that she’d give them a stele if they procured the means to use it, Mercymorn delivers them a Gorgon-class ship, an outdated Cohort vehicle. After BOE’s continued failure to operate it, Mercymorn visits BOE sometime between Four Months Before the Emperor’s Murder and Two Months Before the Emperor’s Murder. Though she is unnamed in Judith Deuteros’s account of the events, it is clearly her based on her status as a Lyctor, high-pitched voice, demeanor, manner of speaking, necromantic knowledge, and extensive bullying of the Edenites.
Mercymorn berates them for nearly letting their captive necromancer die, then opens Judith’s abdomen with thanergetic unstitching. She complains the whole while, insulting BOE’s medical practices and expressing disgust at having to dig through Judith’s guts. Once she removes the artificial parts BOE had placed in Judith’s abdomen, Mercymorn heals the malfunctioning organs. She informs BOE that they need to keep Judith healthy enough to maintain a sustained thanergy field for the stele.
In addition to healing Captain Deuteros, Mercymorn also provides BOE with a creation to power the stele. Judith describes the organic construction as necromantically complex, and Mercymorn admits that if the stele is discovered, the Emperor will know of her betrayal. She implores BOE to follow her instructions exactly, then refuses to offer them any more help. As she leaves the room, Judith hears her demand to see the body of Gideon Nav, doubting BOE’s account of the corpse and implying that BOE is accidentally to blame for its preservation. Mercymorn herself later references this meeting when she tells Gideon (in Harrow’s body): “When they showed me your corpse I didn’t think to check the eyes.”[7]
Appearance and Personality[]
Mercymorn is first described as:
"The face [...] was a prim, virginal oval; much in shape and feature like the shape of a saint's face in a portrait, or a death mask. The nose and jaw and forehead were all carven and serene, and therefore had the same indifferent dullness of a well-formed statue. [...] The hair was a dead flower or apricot color, and that the skin and lips and brows were of a similar hue, so that beneath the nacreous cowl the saint looked like a painting with a very limited palette."[8]
Mercymorn is a rather brusque and unyielding woman. Having lived for a myriad, she has little patience for mortal humans, her youngest Lyctor-sisters, and in fact even the remaining original Lyctors or God Himself. Ferociously intelligent and possessing an iron will, she is accustomed to having her own way. However, her conversations about Cytherea the First and Cristabel, her late cavalier, reveal a younger, more tender personality that has been largely buried in age and grief.
Relationships[]
The Emperor[]
Augustine The First[]
Cristabel Oct[]
"When you mentioned her cavalier's name, she went rigid, as though stung. The Saint of Joy turned to you, scrunch-mouthed and nauseous with rage, and wheezed: 'Don't you ever—ever—use her name with me, you useless child, you impertinent cell.'"[9]
Mercymorn quite plainly cared a great deal for her cavalier. Grief and guilt has made her so raw that even a myriad of time could not soften the reality of her death. She takes any insult to Cristabel's honor personally and refuses to allow Harrowhark or Ianthe to even speak her name. When Perfect Lyctorhood is revealed to be completely feasible, it is in Cristabel that Mercymorn finds the courage and rage to destroy the Emperor.
Gideon the First[]
Harrowhark Nonagesimus[]
Ianthe Tridentarius[]
References[]
- ↑ In Harrow the Ninth, this period of time is clearly marked as "Ten Months Before the Emperor's Murder," despite seeming to make little chronological sense.
- ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act II, Ch. 16
- ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act III, Ch. 29
- ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act V, Ch. 50
- ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act V, Ch. 51
- ↑ As Yet Unsent
- ↑ Harrow the Ninth Act V, Ch. 46
- ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 6
- ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act II, Ch. 17